Page 15 of Servant

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“Games.” Griffin held up the box. “Let’s play now.”

Five

“Doeseveryone in the whole bar know what I don’t know?” I had to ask. This was all getting to be too much. “Are you in the mob?”

“The mob?” Ace’s eyebrows shot up. “I like that one. And no, they don’t. They absolutely don’t. Wanda doesn’t really know what she thinks she knows.” He sighed. “Don’t leave. Let’s play.”

I guessed it wasn’t the mob. Fine. If I were too stupid to live, like one of those heroines that I screamed at to run away, then so be it. Tomorrow, I would figure things out.

The door swung open again, this time with a bang. Four of the guys who had been sitting outside not drinking—the ones I thought I recognized—stood in the doorway. They were tall, all of them, and strong. That much was clear. They were also incredibly pale. When was the last time they’d been in the sun?

Whoever they were, the guys really didn’t like them. The tension in the room increased tenfold. Caesar was wide awake now.

“What do you want?” Rowan grabbed the board game from Griffin and opened the box. He started piling the cards out on the table. Although he’d spoken to the newcomers, he hadn’t looked at them. The others were, but not Rowan, like he couldn’t bother to raise his gaze.

“Hello to you too, cousin.” The man in front walked a few more steps inside the room. “We saw you come in with a girl. Thought we’d make sure that you were behaving yourselves. Can’t have you five getting into trouble, now, can we? Since we’re all going to be listening to you soon.”

Caesar put his arm around me. It was an odd feeling. Ace and Caesar both held me. Still, it seemed important when he’d done that, and I had enough self-preservation from years of the men my mother brought home to know when I was in danger. I just stayed still and silent.

“Not so soon,” Griffin answered. “Or did you lose the ability to count?” He held up his hands. “We have uninformed company, so unless you have something generic to say, go do whatever you were going to do tonight and leave us alone.”

He took another step inside, although his two companions didn’t move. “We could inform her.”

“Do it and see what happens to you.” This time, it was Tanner who spoke. “Whatever you think, you’re nothing to them. Nothing. And we may still be who we are, but we matter. You don’t. Make me unhappy and see what happens, I dare you.”

Ace rose. “Come on, we’re leaving.” He extended his hand, obviously toward me, and I took it. He squeezed our fingers together. “Leave her alone. Don’t look at her or even think about her. She’s nothing to do with this.”

The others rose, and so did I. With a gentle tug, Ace pulled me from the room and back out into the bar.

“We knew you in school.” Obviously not listening, Rowan’s cousin stared at me. “Your mother can’t keep her legs closed. Are you a slut like her? Is that what you’re doing here? Going to give these virgins some blow jobs? Let them lick your pussy? How much do women in your family charge for your services?”

“Hey,” Rowan practically roared. “I think he told you not to even look at her. That means keep your mouth shut.”

“I don’t listen to you. Yet. If I ever will.”

What was about to happen? Rowan was tall and fit. I would even bet on him in any regular fight, but there was something about the three guys who inserted themselves into our evening that screamed of aggression. Something about them that wasn’t quite right. My heart raced, and if I thought that he couldn’t simply reach out and grab me if I tried, I might have run. As it was, I wouldn’t leave these guys. Not that I could do much in a fight, but numbers were numbers.

I knew how to throw a punch and land a kick. That was about it, but it was something.

“No, but you listen to me.”

It was like all the air in the room went away. Rowan’s father seemed to appear out of the darkness of a back hallway. He walked toward us, wearing his standard black, his long blond hair falling to his shoulders. He had the same long, lean face of his son and yet none of Rowan’s beauty. His eyes were dark, so brown they almost seemed black.

The cousin stepped back. “Sir, I apologize.”

“You will. Go to my house. Now. All three of you.”

As if on cue, all three of the aggressive men dropped their heads and exited the room. Their movements were almost beautiful in a way I couldn’t explain. Like they could transfix with the way they walked. I blinked.

“Rowan, take this girl home, then go home for the night. All of you. Now.”

They didn’t answer, but perhaps their assent was implied, because he disappeared into the back of the bar just as fast as he’d appeared. Ace let out an audible breath, but it was the only noise I heard in the room.

Caesar shook his head. “Should have known taking her out in public was going to cause a problem.”

“No, we shouldn’t. This is our place.” Griffin stared at the hallway where Rowan’s father had vanished. “No one cared about it but us. Why now? Why are they circling?”

Tanner stormed toward the front door. “You know why. Come on. We have to get her car. And all the fathers will know by now that we’re expected back home. No dawdling.”


Tags: Rebecca Royce Erotic